By 1994, the world of home multitrack recording was well along the road of transformation from tape to digital formats. But full computerisation of the process was still not a realistic proposition for most recording enthusiasts. Continue reading 1994 TDK SA 90 Super Avilyn Audio Cassette
The early to mid 1990s TDK SA-X 60 audio tape was the upmarket high bias product in the range. TDK had notably used their own Super Avilyn tape coating for high bias Type II cassettes right through the era when chrome was the most popular Type II formulation. But by the time this cassette was manufactured in the early 1990s, most rivals had dropped chrome and followed the TDK path, adopting a cobalt-ferric mix of some sort. Continue reading 1993 TDK SA-X 60 Super Avilyn Audio Cassette
A few years on from the TDK Super Avilyn tape I photographed for THIS POST, the TDK SA cassette had evolved into what you see here. This is a 1988 example, and despite less than four years’ timespan between the two variants, the one depicted here looks markedly different from the 1984 version on that link. The multi-track (Portastudio) format recording this tape preserves is from the early 1990s, so I’m guessing that won’t have been the first material I put onto it. Typically for a TDK SA, the sound is very good.
The cassette’s ‘anti-resonance’ build is denoted on the shell, and this was something various manufacturers seemed to get quite excited about. However, I found it hard to consider as anything much more than a gimmick. If a cassette was made properly, it really shouldn’t have problems with resonance in the first place, so the boast always seemed to me like the manufacturers were trying to get us to regard basic standards as some kind of bonus.
Tape Tardis 